Dem seeks to delay tax reform until after review of Trump’s returns

House Democrats on Monday extended their push for President Trump’s tax returns by offering a resolution on the topic for the sixth week in a row.

The resolution, from Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), is unique from past measures because it would direct the House to delay consideration of tax-reform legislation until after lawmakers review Trump’s tax returns and determine how the president could benefit from tax-code changes.

The resolution also calls on the House to request Trump’s tax returns so that the House Ways and Means Committee could review them in a closed session.

Jeffries, a member of House Democratic leadership and the House Judiciary Committee, offered his measure as “privileged,” which would mean that the House would have to act on it within two legislative days.

Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.), who was presiding over the House, said that a ruling on whether the bill is privileged would be made at a later point.

Past Democratic resolutions on Trump’s tax returns were ruled not to be privileged. The House has voted largely along party lines on motions to table appeals of those rulings.

While Democrats’ attempts at requesting Trump’s tax returns have failed, lawmakers have been continually pressing the issue to put pressure on Republicans.

Jeffries’s bill is the last resolution on Trump’s tax returns that will be considered before the April 18 tax-filing deadline, since Congress will be on recess next week and the week after that.

A Democratic leadership aide told The Hill last month that lawmakers planned to offer resolutions on Trump’s tax returns on a weekly basis until Tax Day. However, it was unclear Monday whether Jeffries’s bill would be the last bill in this effort.

Trump is the first president in decades who hasn’t made his tax returns public. The president has said he won’t release his tax returns while he’s being audited by the IRS, but the tax agency has said that audits don’t prohibit people from disclosing their returns.